FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT VERGE - PAGE 3

For the three adventurers in Eric Overmyer's "On the Verge," bumpy travels are par for the course. Director Greg Kolack experienced a similarly rocky ride during the rehearsal process for this Circle Theatre production. Due to "differences of opinion," all four members of the original cast were dismissed (with pay) and Kolack regrouped with a new ensemble, delaying opening by one week. This new cast apparently satisfies his concept, though whether the performers better serve the play is debatable.

With its simultaneously implied notions of edginess, limitation and potential transcendence, the word "border" is an especially evocative noun in the hands of talented artists. Given its geographic location close to Mexico, a more literal border figures prominently in the lives of the citizens of Tucson, Ariz. So one can see why a dramatic troupe there chose to name itself Borderlands Theater and dedicate its creative mission to presenting work that explores the pleasures and tensions of the juxtaposition of the United States and the nations to its south.

His first climb to the top of U.S. men's figure skating may not have been easy, given the hard work and dislocations it required of Todd Eldredge, but it certainly was smooth and quick. He left home at 10, became national novice champion at 13, junior champion at 15 and senior champion at 18 in 1990, making him the youngest men's winner in 24 years. When Eldredge repeated as U.S. champion in 1991 and went on to finish third in the World Championships, he seemed on the way to an Olympic medal-maybe even the gold-in 1992 or 1994.

The Bulls and Luol Deng are on the verge of completing a six-year deal worth $71 million, league sources told the Tribune. Jason Levien, Deng's representative, flew to Chicago on Tuesday to finalize the deal, which could be announced officially as early as Wednesday. Sources said incentives could push the deal's value to $80 million. Deng turned down a five-year, $57.5 million extension last summer. The Bulls remain far apart on talks with Ben Gordon, the lone remaining restricted free agent.

Up from the Spanish underground, director Pedro Almodovar has created his first mainstream comedy in "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." It's a polished, eye-pleasing and often very funny piece of work, though it backs away from the complexities and perversities Almodovar explored in such genuinely subversive, Warholesque works as his earlier films "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" and "Matador." Gone are the class and gender confusions of the earlier films. "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" takes place in a strictly heterosexual, bourgeois environment, where Pepa Marcos (played by Almodovar's perennial star, Carmen Maura)

New Mexico is on the verge of becoming the latest state to require girls entering 6th grade to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitting virus that can cause cervical cancer, a spokesman for the governor said Monday. The state House approved the bill Sunday, and Gov. Bill Richardson will sign it once he receives the legislation, spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said. "This is an important anti-cancer vaccine, and the governor believes it's imperative for all girls to be protected against cervical cancer," Gallegos said.

To its credit and loss, Eric Overmyer's "On The Verge or The Geography of Yearning" is a very literary play. An airy and somewhat academic fancy, it supposes that three proper but adventurous ladies from the Victorian era bundle up their long skirts, put on their pith helmets and take off on a science-fictional time trip to the great terra incognita of the future, there to discover the mystifying new world that awaits mankind. Filled with literary references, elaborate wordplay and a slightly smug sense of history, it desperately needs a highly theatrical production to make its whimsical conceits assume some stage muscle.

A pair of well-worn flippers, plastic poker chips, an eggbeater ... the collection of stuff is placed on a long table. Add a few clucking bargain-hunters and the scene could be a garage sale. This is not a garage sale. These are props for the play "On the Verge, Or the Geography of Yearning" opening Monday at the Court Theatre. Eric Overmyer's comedy chronicles the adventures of three American Victorian lady travelers, which does not explain the flippers, poker chips or eggbeaters.

Now that's the Scottie Pippen we know. Disrupting his team, wanting to be traded, angering the media and the public. Texans were supposed to be so tough. They can't even put up with Pippen for a year. Chicagoans did it for more than a decade. But after Pippen and teammate Charles Barkley traded barbs and insults in ESPN interviews this week, the Houston Rockets appear on the verge of trading Pippen. To where is uncertain. The Rockets, for most of the last month, have been begging the Los Angeles Lakers to take Pippen for Glen Rice, Robert Horry and Travis Knight, a deal Houston rejected in July.